Aerial for swords advice please??

The Muppet

What would be the best tv Aerial for the swords area. (I am near Fingallians GAA club). I purchased a digital terrestrial reciever today . I am recieving lots of Uk channels but the picture is breaking up. Irish ones are OK. The Picture on my TV (uk channels) has deteroraiated over the last few years and I feel it's time to erect a new antenna system. Advice would be appreciated.

Ulsterman 1690

For UK channels a Group A high gain aerial and masthead amplifier ("booster") pointed towards Divis (Just West of Belfast)

For Irish Channels either a Group W pointed at Three Rock (Dublin Mountains) or a Group C/D pointed at Claremont Carn (NE of Dundalk)

Youll also need a power supply (for the masthead amp) and a combiner for the RTE aerial

Three Rock may give a stronger signal but Claremont is easier to combine

secret_squirrel

Will you really get freeview DTT reception in swords?

(Looks at IDTV in corner of room longingly)

The Muppet

secret_squirrel wrote:

Will you really get freeview DTT reception in swords?

(Looks at IDTV in corner of room longingly)

Definitely in some areas yes. A mate of mine in Glassmore has it crystal clear. He's a fair bit higher above sea level than I am. I intend to change my tv aerial in the next week or so. I will let you know if I can recieve freeview properly with the new setup when its in place.

Thanks for the advice Ulsterman 1690, would you recommend any antenna, amp and combiner in particular?

oconnorw

I assume we are talking about DTT reception only.

For IRISH DTT only which is preferable, 3 rock or Claremont Carn. I live in the Donabate area which is quite near fingallians. Currently I have a Grid aerial combined with a masthead pointing north and I am getting Irish DTT sound only on the DTT tuner in my TV. the picture comes in for a second and then i get a blue screen.

secret_squirrel

Afaik Irish DTT is only on a trial phase on 1 or 2 transmitters. Is it even up and running yet?

Plus (and I may be wrong) they are using different encoding, so that a UK/Freeview Decoder or IDTV isnt any good anyway.

L1011

Its up and running, and (currently) any proper UK box is more than up for it. Old or just plain cheap **** ones don't do 8k FFT - which the entire rest of the world bar the UK uses.

Oh, and based on how minisculely tiny the group C/D aerials I see for Clermont are around work (Swords Business Campus) you should get the Irish DTT with a fork in the RF input

The Muppet

I can get the Irish dtt channels fine on my existing set up which I am informed is a group B antenna pointer at Kilkeel ???{open to correction} . I ordered my Group A and C D antenna today ,I should have it up and running by the weekend weather permitting. I will post the results re freeview.

I have a tevion freeview box I assume its a Uk one and it picks up the Irish stations fine.

L1011

Tevion = German make; they use 8k FFTs in Germany

secret_squirrel

MYOB wrote:

with a fork in the RF input

Cool! Now whats a fork ??

lucernarian

The Muppet wrote:

I can get the Irish dtt channels fine on my existing set up which I am informed is a group B antenna pointer at Kilkeel ???{open to correction} . I ordered my Group A and C D antenna today ,I should have it up and running by the weekend weather permitting. I will post the results re freeview.

That would be right, Divis would have the Group A aerial pointed with pins pointing horizontally about 5 degrees to the left of the current aerial. If you are getting the Irish DTT trial with no problems, I can't see a purpose to the C/D aerial.

The Muppet

To_be_confirmed wrote:

That would be right, Divis would have the Group A aerial pointed with pins pointing horizontally about 5 degrees to the left of the current aerial. If you are getting the Irish DTT trial with no problems, I can't see a purpose to the C/D aerial.

I will be replacing my Group B with the Group A in the hope that it will improve my analog reception and if I can get the Uk freeview that would be a bonus.

L1011

secret_squirrel wrote:

Cool! Now whats a fork ??

The metal deely you, erm, shovel food with </mangled to bejaysus simpsons quote>

The Muppet

I got the new setup up today with mixed results. My terrestrial band A reception has improved , My CD band reception is very poor (so I can forget using a fork) , I can get some freeview channel Film 4 and itv play and a few music channels, No BBC Or UTV .

My main concern is the poor reception from Claremont Cairn. I was only recieving a 40 db signal and the picture was very noisy. Should I use a preamp for this aerial as well. I can get an excellent signal from threerock but that being Group A as well means I can not use it without filtering my Uk aerial I think.

Any advice would be appreciated.